Hannah here: I’m thrilled to welcome crafty type, charity shop champion and all round lovely person Vicky, from The Owl and The Accordion to the blog today with a lovely rustic star tutorial. We’ve been blog friends for years now and I was chuffed that she was up for helping us whilst Davina was on maternity leave. Our feelings about Christmas almost exactly mirror, and you know by now that I am allllll about the simple things this year. I love this star so much and hope to carve a bit of time to make it this week. Over to Vicky:

Until this year, I’ve always been part of the ‘more-is-more’ decorative school of thinking; colours everywhere, something on every surface and garlands hanging from every shelf and window. I’m not sure whether it was the fact that I got fed up with the endless dusting, or whether I just started feeling like my home was trying to smother me, but I found myself hankering after a simpler way of living; clear surfaces with a few meaningful objects, one beautiful print rather than an entire gallery wall and just, well, less stuff. It spread to Christmas as well, and as well as scaling back on the present buying, I decided I wanted our decorations to be more rustic; the heady scent of clove-studded oranges, cinnamon sticks strung up, simple wooden figures and plenty of greenery. One of my favourite makes so far has been my rustic star, which took about an hour, and incorporates all of the best bits of the woods in winter.

You Will Need:

Five relatively straight sticks of a similar size

Various types of greenery and berries (I used Hawthorn, Holly berries, Pine twigs and a bit of someone’s hedge)

Wire and garden string

A hot glue gun (the mini version can be bought from Hobbycraft for just £5!)

1. Start by arranging your sticks into a star shape, and then tie them together with the garden string. To get the shape right, you might find you have to overlap them more in certain places than in others, but you can always clip the excess off once you’ve tied all your sticks in place.

2. Wrap some wire around your sticks, so you have something to weave the foliage into, and bend over at the end so there are no sharp edges.

3. Cover your star shape in greenery and berries, weaving in and out of the wire and sticks, and using the glue gun where necessary.

4. To make the top of the star, arrange some pine cones, greenery and berries, and use the glue gun to fix it in place.

5. Leave the glue to try and harden, and then display your festive rustic star with pride!

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Hannah Bullivant. Stylist and writer based in Kent, UK. I help you to create nurturing spaces for yourself, both inside and out. I write about embracing the seasons, creating soulful interiors that fit who you are and journalling and planning.. I share helpful articles about styling your home or event, and journalling too. I run workshops throughout the year. I have an ebook about soulful gatherings, and an e course called The Life Book.